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In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the front brakes. This is a 2003 Honda Civic, but the procedure is pretty much the same for the 2001 to 2005 models. This is for the sedans and coupes. We show you on the driver side, but the passenger side is the same procedure. We always recommend you replace the brakes in pairs. Items you'll need include new brakes from 1AAuto.com, 12 to 19 millimeter sockets with ratchet & extension, flat-blade and Phillips screwdrivers, both small and large, a number 3 Phillips bits as well as driver, large C clamp, pry bar, torque wrench, jack and jack stands, wire brush and grease.
Remove the front wheel, held on by four 19 millimeter lug nuts. If you have a different style hub cap, you'll need to remove that, but just use a breaker bar or your tire iron and loosen the lug nuts while the tire is on the ground. Now raise and support the vehicle. Now remove the lug nuts the rest of the way, and the wheel and tire.
With the wheel off, you can check the condition of your brakes. You can run a screwdriver or your fingernail up and down, front and back. Check for any deep grooves or ridges and actually even though the rotors look a little rusty, that's just from not being used. They're actually in pretty good shape. The outer pad, you can see right here, actually still pretty thick on this vehicle. Now in behind we can see your inner pads right here, again thick. Actually, the brakes on this vehicle are not in bad shape, but we're going to take them apart and put new ones on to show you.
Remove your caliper, we're going to remove two 12 millimeter bolts here and up here. Then later on, we'll be removing the whole caliper bracket so that's two 17 millimeter bolts here and up here. Before you remove those two 12 millimeter bolts, it's helpful, use a large screwdriver or a small pry bar. Insert it in here and pry out and this pulls your caliper out, which actually pushes the caliper piston back in. It can make it a lot easier to get the caliper off. You're just prying slowly, the calipers moving out. It'll go back some when you release it and now we'll remove those two 12 millimeter bolts. Then remove the caliper, put it up, make sure it's secure so it won't fall down. Then, with the caliper out of the way, you can see better. Here's the wear marks on your pads as they wear down, those disappear. That's when you know it's time to replace your pads.
Remove, pull the pad out and up, same thing on the back side. Out and up. Remove the caliper bracket, we're going to remove those two 17 millimeter bolts. If they're still here, you need to remove these two Phillips screws. It's possible, although not likely, that you can just use a number 3 Phillips screwdriver, then remove them. You'll need to use a number 3 bit on a ratchet. If you just kind of shock them real quick, it'll come off.
Hopefully your rotor will just come right off. If you find that it doesn't come off easily, you can take a couple of M8 bolts and thread them into there and push them off with the bolts.
The original parts from the car: driver side pads, new rotors from 1A Auto, and then the pad set here and the rotors you can see exactly the same, same countersunk holes and everything. You're going to install just like the original, except your brakes. The rotor, just make sure that you line up the countersunk holes with the thread holes.
For the hub, put that on, and you can use the original screws or sometimes just use a lug nut to hold things together. These, you just want to tighten them up a little bit. You don't want to make them very tight, because you don't want to make them hard to get off next time, but just to hold things in place. Make sure that your slides here are nice and free. This one doesn't actually, it's a little bit less free than I'd like, so you can just pull them out. We'll clean it up and we'll put some new grease on it. You'll also want to clean up your slides if you don't put new slides on them, just use a wire brush on both sides.
There's some grease, spread it on, and reinstall and make sure it's really free. You're going to install the caliper bracket. It'll be 17 millimeter bolts that hold it. You want to torque these to 108 Newton-meters which is 80 foot-pounds. Make sure our caliper piston is back inside the caliper, just put your old brake pad in place. Use a large C-clamp and tighten it up. Push it back in place and remove the clamp, and remove the old pad. Spread some grease around the back.
Also, put a little bit of grease on the ends, then you can put it in place. Then grease is spread on the rear one. You want the tab on the bottom. Now you can put your caliper back down. You may have to push your slide in, in order to get it in place.
Reinstall your two 12 millimeter bolts, and these are 34 Newton-meters or 25 foot-pounds. Put your wheel back in place. Tighten your lug nuts. We'll tighten them preliminary and then torque them when the vehicle is back down on the ground. Tighten your lug nuts, 80 foot-pounds and just cross in the pattern.
Anytime you do work on your brakes, make sure you pump the pedal. Get a nice firm pedal before you test drive the vehicle.
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